Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an introduction of the new iPhone 5 in San Francisco. Cook says the company is ‘extremely sorry’ for the frustration that its maps application has caused and it's doing everything it can to make it better. Cook said in a letter posted online Friday that Apple ‘fell short’ in its commitment to make the best possible products for its customers.The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized Friday for the company’s error-ridden new mobile mapping service and pledged to improve the application installed on tens of millions of smartphones. In an unusual mea culpa, he invited frustrated consumers to turn to the competition.

Cook said Apple “fell short” of its own expectations.

“Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working nonstop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard,” he said in a letter posted online.

Apple released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system last week that replaced Google Maps with Apple’s own map application. But users quickly complained that the new software offered fewer details, lacked public transit directions and misplaced landmarks, among other problems.

People have been flocking to social media to complain and make fun of the app’s glitches, which include judging landscape features by their names. The hulking Madison Square Garden arena in New York, for instance, shows up as green park space because of the word “garden.”

Until the software is improved, Cook recommended that people use competing map applications to get around — a rare move for the world’s most valuable company, which prides itself on producing industry-leading gadgets that easily surpass rivals.

Apple has made missteps in the past — even under founder and CEO Steve Jobs, whose dogged perfectionism was legendary.

“I think they are clearing the air and, more importantly, clarifying why they had to do their own maps,” said Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst who’s followed Apple for more than three decades.

He recalled an infamous problem with the iPhone 4’s antenna that interfered with reception when people covered a certain spot with a bare hand. Jobs apologized, though he denied there was an antenna problem that needed fixing.

Apple quickly recovered.

But Cook’s remarks went further, saying the company was “extremely sorry” and promising to make swift changes.

Contrast that with Jobs’ statement from 2010, when he said the antenna issue had been “blown so out of proportion that it’s incredible.”

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